I find the rules for bleed damage a bit confusing, so I want to make sure I understand it before I play it.
A character has an attack that deals 1d4 bleed damage (in addition to normal damage).
On the character's first turn, she attacks and hits a target. After resolving normal damage, she rolls 1d4 and gets a 1. At the end of the round, the target takes 1 point of bleed damage.
The next round, the character attacks the same target and misses. At the end of the round, the target takes 1 point of bleed damage.
The next round, the character attacks the same target and hits. After resolving normal damage, she rolls 1d4 and gets a 3. At the end of the round, the target takes 3 points of bleed damage.
Is this correct?
Not exactly.
Bleed
A creature that is taking bleed damage takes the listed amount of damage at the beginning of its turn. Bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or through the application of any spell that cures hit point damage (even if the bleed is ability damage). Some bleed effects cause ability damage or even ability drain. Bleed effects do not stack with each other unless they deal different kinds of damage. When two or more bleed effects deal the same kind of damage, take the worse effect. In this case, ability drain is worse than ability damage.
So the damage does not happen at the end of the round, it happens at the beginning of the victim's turn.
You are correct about how multiple bleed effects from the same source work though. They overlap, they do not stack. Basically, if the character in your example rolled a 4 (the maximum number possible), they wouldn't even need to roll more bleed dice later unless the creature somehow stopped bleeding.
Hope this helped!
nope, you roll the bleed damage each time if it's a die roll. So if you rolled a 4 the first time you still need to roll the second time.
You are correct about how multiple bleed effects from the same source work though. They overlap, they do not stack. Basically, if the character in your example rolled a 4 (the maximum number possible), they wouldn't even need to roll more bleed dice later unless the creature somehow stopped bleeding.
Hope this helped!
nope, you roll the bleed damage each time if it's a die roll. So if you rolled a 4 the first time you still need to roll the second time.
Thanks guys. I'm still confused, but I think I'm starting to get it.
I think the thing that's throwing me is the 1d4. Am I correct that the "worse effect" is the 1d4, and not number rolled on the 1d4?
Assuming I am, the victim in the above example would roll 1d4 at the start of his/her turn. So the victim might take 1 point of bleed damage one turn, 3 points the next 2 the following, and so on.
Thus, the attacking character can ignore bleed damage on subsequent attacks, because he/she will never do better than 1d4 (unless he/she has a different attack that does bleed damage).
Is this correct?
Yes, you understand it perfectly.
Thanks! :)
Sorry, one more question.
What constitutes, "different kinds of damage?"
Generally it means coming from different kinds of sources.
Generally it means coming from different kinds of sources.
So what if it's two identical sources? For example, let's say a character had two identical weapons (for example) that both did 1d4 bleed damage. If the character made two successful attacks (one with each weapon) against a target, the target would suffer 2d4 bleed damage per turn?
Also, what if it's the same source but different kinds of damage, e.g. lethal and nonlethal? For example, let's say a character used a bleed damage weapon to attack a target normally. Then, on a subsequent turn, the character used the same weapon and took the -4 penalty to deliver nonlethal damage. Would the bleed from the first attack stack with the second?
Thanks!
That's why they need to be different kinds of sources. A rogue with the bleeding talent stabbing somebody twice, even with different weapons, would not stack. Two entirely different creatures with different kinds of attacks probably would. But it's hard to quantify every scenario because they're basically infinite.
Lethal/Nonlethal is still coming from the same kind of source. Also, I don't think you can do Nonlethal bleed damage, but I'm not 100% sure.